Missing the Point

1Timothy 6:21 People caught up in a lot of talk can miss the whole point of faith.

When I was studying the history of the Church in the four year Bible study known as Education for Ministry, our class often remarked on how these guys (and they were all guys) would get so hung up on some point of theology -- like "Did the bread physically become Christ's body, like at the molecular level, or was this a more spiritual or metaphorical truth?" -- and the next thing you know, war has broken out! It's hard to imagine anything more opposed to the Christian message than war, and yet these guys really believed they were fighting for the Truth, the Soul of the Church. It seemed to us like they were missing the point on a grand scale.

So what is the point? Paul says it earlier in 1Timothy (verse 3) "The whole point of what we're urging is simply love" and later tells Timothy "Teach believers with your life" (v. 12). That is what faith is about, living a life grounded in the love of God, expressing that love to all God's creation. It's not for me to judge others, only to love them. It's not even for me to save others, just to love them. Self-examination is essential, so that I can form my life with Jesus at the center, but it must be a self-examination grounded in love, gentle, caring, encouraging, not harsh and cruel. I've noticed that people who are harsh and cruel to others often are subject to an Inner Critic harsher and crueler than the behavior they exhibit. So loving ourselves is part of the equation. And that only comes from experiencing the love of God. That is the foundation, the starting point of the life lived in faith. Know this. God is good; God is love. God loves you, right here, right now, just the way you are. That's basic.

Prayer: Dear God, I pray for those who have not yet received the comfort of Your Love and Mercy, who suffer the pain of feeling worthless and useless, victims of hate and spreaders of hate. Touch their hearts, open their hearts, to Your Love. Use me as an instrument to open hearts to Your Love that have been mired in fear, self-loathing and oppression, that all might experience the joy of living in your Heavenly Kingdom, right here on earth. Amen.